


To Marvel at a Halo-

by ThereAreNoStringsOnMe



Category: Halo(video game)and Marvel(movie)cross over
Genre: Action, Lots of dialogue, Romance...?, Violence but not too much, and a few little secrets you will have to read to see
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-04-26 03:56:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4989313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThereAreNoStringsOnMe/pseuds/ThereAreNoStringsOnMe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Portals, Einstien Rosen Bridges, spacial extrusions! The very definitions of law and order- are gonna be torn apart!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

[First checkpoint] "Well-he started it..." 

 

_"....then Man has not attained the Mantle."_

The Didact glared deeply into the human warrior's visor. Ancient thoughts and time lost dreams clouded his newly awakened mind. His forestalled purpose rushed back into his awaiting senses.

He seemed to speak to all-and yet non...to himself- his own mind- realizing...

_"Their ascendance...may yet be prevented.."_

He dwelt a moment longer on this frail hope; musing on this warrior as if using him as a focal point for his thoughts. Turning him slightly as he held him suspended, he assessed mankind's evolutionary progression and newfound state in his absence. His thoughts then twisted as he it became an object of wonderment. Perhaps pity. Perhaps musing how akin they were and yet still alien to one another.....the difference between them? Time. Time aided those whom best spent it....

 _"Time was your ally, human. And now it has abandoned you."_ He had wasted enough time-the humans would ascend no higher. _"The **Forerunners** -have returned."_

With that declaration, his armor assembled an encasing helmet, obscuring his face from view. He indifferently declared.

_"This tomb...is now your's."_

And with that, he abandoned the human, casting him out and away to fall to the empty panneled floor. To lie in wait as he had for an eternity. Lifting his head, he willed the pedestil upon which he stood to raise him to his Sphere. His Warrior-Servant blood singing through his veins; The Didact prepared his escape...

\---

 

Red flashed threw Chief's mind as Cortana- housed inside his cranial implant-anylized the intraplanitary, singularity the Forerunner vessal was creating. Sheer panic at their proximity left little time to process and recognize what she did-

 

 _"Slipspace rupture-!"_ She cried.

[The readings unmistakeable, she'd flash copy all transmitted signatures emitted; in an effort to and with the hope of tracking it...if they even made it out of this one alive!]

The Chief had barely even registered her revelation. Pushing his arms against the polished floor he raised himself up, his head craning upward. He stared in silence at the horrific anomoly before them; his disbelieving wonder and apprehension her own. Cortana knew they had no time and she cried in panic.

_"Chief- **move**!!"_

At Cortana's order, the Chief immediatly spun around and dashed as fast as he could- trying to put as great a distance between them and the rupture.

In a last effort to gain even centimeter's extra distance from the dimention tearing explosion- the Chief hurled himself forward and away-

-A deafining pop and a rush of shock, washed over the Chief in a mind blinding white-just as his boots left the ground in a cannonic leap-

[Boom...wash of static...]

___

 

His wieght heavy on his chest, the Chief's vision blurred back from nothing into a sickening wash of color, a deep throbbing ache in his bones and an indistinct but urgent voice in the backround...

 _"Chief please!"_ [Cortana had been begging the him to wake up, after the rupture had caught them both in the perimial whitewash from its singularity. John's neorlogical connection he shared with her and through her the suit, had violently distabled his delicate cerebral nerve ends and walls. 'I've got to stay focused, he could die if I don't think of everything-'

[That thought would stall as she processed his 'barely awareness'. She tryed to motivate his will, despite the shock he had undergone.]

 _"We've got to **go-** "_ [Her voice urgent.] _"That-"_

[Accessing her Covenant translation routine, she replayed the log which showed that after The Forerunner had converted the Promethean knights, all Covenant present had proclaimed in great awe and reverence-]" _- Did-act_...he manipulated Infinity's signal to get us to release him!"

[-John still lay there. He hadn't moved.] **"Get up!!"**

Immediatly, the Chief pushed himself heavily off of the...rock ground..? 'That ship must have jumped us with it..' His stomach lurched and his skull was tight with pain. He pushed it aside, instead demanding.

"What's happening?!" He knew they had to move-but first he had to know where.

"Moving the sattelite into slipspace, distabilized the core." [Cortana could feel his worry, confusion and the effects of the radation exposure echoing through him, the pain, the fear-but he'd been through that and worse before. They had to keep moving.]

Above them, two disorietated Phantoms circled in confusion as all systems apparently failed. Falling from the heavens they collided into each other, sonic tremers booming through the Chief's audio recievers. They crashed mightily and they fell to the canyon's base. He covered his visior to deflect any shrapnel or debris, as his shields were flickering and unstable.

The belly of one disposed its load of cargo, a dozen or so Ghost craft that spilled onto the ground at their feet.

[Cortana almost 'sighed' in relief. There never seemed to be a situation that- somehow\- in someway\- didn't provide for itself.] "Grab one of those Ghosts!" [her direction was useless however- as he had already recovered his weapon and charging up the incline had vaulted a ledge and now approached the vehicles, just as she seemed to notice.....their ideas being that 'in synce' with one another-

or one of them was a little slow....

'...Gi-rl-' She warned herself.]

Chief would jump-slide into the seat of the scout vehicle, punching at the power and controls almost before he had settled his wieght. It fired to life under his gauntleted grip and he flattened the accelerater with the urgency of his situation-sending the Ghost's plasma core into overdrive, to power on through the now shifting cavern.

[ As he tore ahead at it's max speed, she began a distance/rate of travel equation with the Forerunners signature and their's, configuring with the time the singularitys integrity would hold up...and didn't like the odds...

'We're not going fast enough!' She'd think furiously.Her copies too began to run calculations of their own and tragecterizing and compartimentilizing all availible data then offering it as some sort of solution...at the same time!

Cortana squeezed her 'eyes' tighter, fighting and redirecting the sub divisions and other voices inside her 'head' to minimal and rudamary taskings- freeing her processor and trying to focus- he- **John** \- needed more power! They had to go faster! She'd think-and think...

[An idea!]"Hang on."[ Chief wouldn't like it but-] "I'm going to channel energy from your shields to overdrive the Ghost's boost." [She'd make a few adjustments to his suit's overlay; overlapping the rays of both of their respective technologies. The contact allowed her to tap into, and manually flectuate energy output and diverted the overflow into the plasma chamber; throwing the Master Chief back against his seat with the inertia of the Boost.]

No, he didn't like it but but he had managed without shields in the past. They'd be fine. He knew they didn't have any other options, so as ever- he didn't argue.

Cortana never let him down or made the wrong discision. She always knew what was best- and they would do it. Even if they sacrificed all for the survival of humanity....

They might get the chance if they stuck around here any longer- there was little time before they would be buried alive with no hope of escape and that was not an option! The Chief tugged at the yolk, swinging them around any obstacle and continued hurtling towards their salvation or their inevitable doom...

___

 

Sneak peek for next time:

**"Divert all power to thrusters-!" Tony ordered rather strenuously. "Do it now, Jarvis!"**

***** come and get it lovilies *****

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh no...this can't be good..

[Second checkpoint] '...We-are-a-great big part of it-'

 

 

 

A nucleur missile streaked through the air, less then a minute away from one of America's greatest landmarks...the great city of New York.

The copper and gold suited figure of the Iron Man swooped up and underneith it, desperatly grasping at it, his gauntleted hands slipping against its own force and velocity as he fought for control of both; the last hope for not only the Avengers- but for the city itself.

" _Divert all power to thrusters_ -!" Tony ordered rather strenuously. " _Do it **now** , Jarvis!_"

"Diverted, sir. Awl power to thrusters." It had already been done, preemptivly as he could not help understanding Stark so well as to now predict a wish or intention. But he spared him that nuence detail. 'After awl, millions of lives where at stake. And I don't feel like dying today...evah in fact.'

Tony shot into the sky, scorching the air's ions with his thruster's super burners. The nuke clutched to his back fought him, forcing down against him. He grit his teeth, grunting painfully as the inner lining of his suit blistered his skin.

He pushed up against its power and wieght, driving them upward; his eyes leading them to his target. The Chittari wormhole.

His gut clenched at the sight. ' _Little bastards._ ' He thought furiously. _'I've got a present for ya'_

Jarvis set a holographic grid on Tony's HUD display, guiding him away from the radical alien forces and leading a clear shot to the portal.

As they burst straight upward, closing in on the target, Jarvis did notice the garganuan floating...(running basic recognition/similarity camparisen system)...slug/whales?

'They would be better suited to merely plunge their great mass threw the infastructure in a gridded pattern for maximum casualties and a complete obliteration of the city. An instantanious conquest. Then to continue that tactic, would be a complete national victory....but what di they know? Hmph. In all calculative honesty- organics. Chittari, human...no matter. All are the same in their blind zeal and inefficiency.'

Jarvis calculated a speed to distance equation then crossed it with the warheads detination timetable and found they had 5.7 seconds to spare...

What they didn't have was ARC energy. Mr. Stark was running on barely 7% primary power with no emergency back up source. The Chittari beating his suit recieved had made sure of that.

"Upon entering the wormhole, sir, I _advise_ you to use caution. An anomoly of _that_ size and artificially produced could have devestating effects on any form of electromagnetism." He added to himself. 'Which consists of nearly everything...even one's brain..'

" _Duelly noted._ " Tony answered as he rose up closer and closer to meet the mouth of the hole. ' _This ain't the end of the line...right?'_ Tony's thoughts drifted to what Rogers had said before. That he wasn't the kind of guy to lay across the wire...' _Well lets prove him wrong..'_

He closed in. A mere dozen meters between him and the greatest unknown since the Armstrong moon landing...' This time, it'll be real..' As all manner of Chittari crossed his path, slug/whales and all. They payed little attention to the Iron Man in his flight of peril. Much to their misfortune-

___

 

Sneak peek of the next chapter:

 ***** **"Keep going! Keep going!" She cried, the Chief responded without hesitation, driving the Ghost onward- dispite its shuddering plasma drive...***


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Shit's about to get real..."

[Third checkpoint reached] "Just when we thought we were done..."

 

 

Their Ghost tore along the canyon track avoiding pillars rising suddenly before them and walls crumbled and slid across there path.

Cortana for the most part could do nothing more then watch while she monitered the Didact's waypoint and continued to feed John's shields to the vehicle's thrusters. Coasting up an incline a ledge would end and a drop off would open up before them...She mentally braced as, with no hesitation, the Master Chief gunned the Ghost and took to the sky.

Momentum carried it fast and it easily fell to the next ledge. The Ghost landed and flew on and on even as more pillars rose in front of them.

Jumping two more gorges the path would curve slowing them momentarily.

"Keep going! Keep going!" She cryed.

The Chief responded without hesitation, driving the Ghost onward- punishing it's shuddering plasma drive. Boosting around a corner and getting struck sideways with debris, he barely regained control in time to fly over another chasm. Lava glowed within the rock all around showing the level of instability as he Landed hard and rebounded over another gorge; desperatly racing an unseen clock. After falling again the bottom of the Ghost- having _ground hard_ against the canyon floor- whined loudly, the engines straining under the stress.

Unheeding, the Chief boosted around a bend, skidding in a perfect drift to face ahead a plain broken by a few pillars. Grunts were running and squeeling for their lives and rocketing threw and around them he'd barely avoided a crashing Phantom as it fell from the sky and exploded against his left canyon wall. The way would bend a tight right and then left, funneling them in.

Cortana estimated another 5 kilometers at least. ['Come on, Chief!' she silently urged as he got closer to the waypoint. A particular chasm opened up before them as the ground quaked violently. Chief's landing was particulariy rough just as Cortana picked up a signal to not from inside the planet. At least in their layer. "Emergency broadcast from Infinity!" She cleared up the trace which was difficult  there being a hell of a lot of interference.] Chief payed half a mind as a static colored voice came over the comms, just as he entered a tunnel.

[transmission] " _Fleetcom. This is Infinity! We are encountering an unidenfied g-----matrix disturbance and are being pulled INSIDE a planet of FORERUNNER origin."_

Walls closed in on the tunnel Chief was racing through either side alternatedly sliding towards him. a boot punched boost later, he burst out of the mouth of the tunnel, as the right side walls began to crumble falling towards him.

['Two kilometers left!' Cortana was wiling them faster as another division of herself attempted to track and source the UNSC Infinity. Shocked and disgusted at herself at how the Didact had fooled her...via relays. 'Amataur!']

[transmission] _"Posssible contact with UNSC Forward unto Dawn! Jettesoning complete log beacons at our last known!"_

'Forward unto Dawn?' That thought was enough to distract them as over another grunt riddled plain. Then speed across only for a quake to distable the foundation beneath the Ghost. The platua suddenly dropped out from under, dropping them about 100 meters below. The debris hung the Ghosts undercarraige up causing them to get stuck. Chief bruised the controls, fighting to see-saw over it all.

Cortana's tension broke threw in an exclaimation, as he struggled to proceed. "It's not like I can get out and **push!** " ['girl get a handle!' He's doing all he can.' 'Right. Sorry.']

Her urgency was not lost on him. The Chief would jam the Ghost's thrust; jerking him back against the seat again. They were forced blindly over another drop off to land below, dodging more pillars, some even grazing the belly and tossing it about as the Chief struggled for control, fighting the fluttering drive. It's exhaust was even trembling(or was it the ground around them?) It's overdrive burning out, the speed and terrain making his difficult task, more so.

Slabs of granite slid from both sides to crush them, but John-pulling his lucky charm- screamed right through with barely enough time and space to clear through.

"The Core's not gonna last much _longer_!" ['500 meters. Come on Chief.']

Another plain. The Ghost coughed and tryed to burst forward- but dropped again as the rock shelf below them collapsed. Weightlessness clutched Chief again as he fell some 200 meters. The landing, coupled with his weight, crushed the belly of the Ghost. It screamed painfully as, without mercy, he ground at the accelerater. In agony, it choked itself forward and smoking terribly boosted around a curved canyon that was funneled up to another jump as the ground felt ready to crumble beneath.

Cortana cryed enthudiastically. _"Portal up ahead!!"_ ['Go, go, go!']

Flying across the rock floor, Chief saw the Portal; large and glowing, it was set in the sky past the 'one way' peak of the next gorge ahead.

'No time.'

Landing he was barely able to brace as he put ALL he had into jettesoning the near death beaten wreck of a Ghost to the breaking point. The Ghost tore up the ledge and flew through the air deadweighted; as at that moment it died, successfully flying, carring them towards the open portal before their eyes.

'They had made it'.

___

 

_Sneak peak into the next chapter :_

*** " _Sir-"_ Jarvis said, his voice crackling. _"I've given--uo awl--ts_ _got._.."**

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "This is it, baby."

[Fourth checkpoint reached] "And I never said goodbye..."

 

 

Chittari craft and creature swarmed before the maw of the portal, and without another hope besides them, the Avengers were fighting a losing battle to save their planet Earth, while the sky above, held both their hope-

and enslavment...

 

(3o meters)

[Jarvis anilyzed the 'black hole' or 'portal' as Mr. Stark and he didn't like the readings he was recieving. 'I hope Captain Rogers chokes on his words concering Mr.Stark. He knows _nothing_ about him.' They were almost there. Jarvis detected very dangerous levels of elecromagnetic radiation and invisible waves not recognized in the table of known elements. It was a unique spacial extrusion of undeterminable proportions. But Stark's moral compass be enlightened; and would not give quarter to the more rational part of his mind. The 'why' they were on this one way trip into the unknown. Jarvis braced for the unforseeable. He trusted Stark.]

(27 meters) Tony forced past his grit teeth. _" Full thrusters Jarvis! Give her **all** we've got-were almost there!"_

 _"Sir-"_ Jarvis said, his voice crackling. _"I've given--uo awl--ts got._.."

Tony's strained whisper answered his friend's stress. "Hang in there, pal..."

(15 meters) _"Almost there.."_

 

(10 meters)

 

(5 meters)

 

Tony plunged head first threw the maw of the portal. A rush of frozen, crushing pressure enveloped him as he saw before him a fleet of extraterestrial fighters and he could only assume a collossel command vessal. 'There she is..'

Feeling the oxygen fail, amongst all else, Tony's eyes fluttered as the last thing he beheld, besides the feeling of falling, was the fiery silent implosion of the alien space vessal as it was consumed. _'We did it..'_

The grip of his conscience ebbed and faded into nothing, then all he saw was black.

 

\---

 

[Jarvis 'felt' the _crushing_ power of the portal's edges, the presssure was  enormous! His audio projecter choked out when he fed awl availiable power to life support, trying to sustain its functions. It failed, dispite his efforts and he couldn't moniter Mr. Starks bio-readings. All his connections failed, his five senses if you would, going cold like amputees.]

 

As the Ironman fell back threw the throbbing edges of the singularity, somthing stranger then gravity took its hold...

 

[Jarvis, with the last of his proccesing abilitys, felt a _cold_ , 'painful' vaccuum pull at him, he resisted futilly but the _foreign power_ funneled him in at the same time it contained and then drew him out; channeling his very essence away- ]

And...into an unknown.

 

\---

_Sneak peak into the next chapter:_

***** **The Ghost burst through the other side of the portal, it's controls dead-***

*Oh no lovlies! :}


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This...is not earth.

 

[5th checkpoint reached] "that was the good news..."

 

 

The Ghost burst through the other side of the portal just seconds before it faded into nothing. The controls dead, it struck the dirt of the surface and skid across- down a steep slope.

A slope overhanging an immeasurable drop off...

Chief gripped the yolk fiercly with both fists, fighting the momentum of the vehicle. Looking at the distance he knew there wasn't anymore time. He jerked the steering to the left, pounding his boots into the bulk of the ghosts sides and kicking out he pushed off and away- sending it pinwheeling away until it flung itself over the cliff's ravine.

Landing, Chief's boots dug into the dry ground- his wieght sending him sliding forward- dust billowing he skid to a 'just in time' lucky stop. Chief stood still for a moment, eyeing the inestimatable gorge that they-Cortana and he- had just barely escaped. He took in a deep breath then a step back. He wondered where on the surface they had appeared on, so they could sooner determine where the Infinity might be.

With that thought he became aware of an ache inside his skull, at the base of his cerebellum. Deep inside and painfully warm where a familiar cool had always ever resided.

His attention was snapped outward as an atmospheric ~boom~ sounded in the vast sky above; lightning and electromagnetic discharge pulsing through the clouds that were obscuring the source of the disturbance. Another boom and the nose of the galactic space vessel slowly...wieghtlessly glided down. Its belly grazing treetops as it coasted towards-over-and past the Master Chief while the comms then crackled on, playing a distress call comms wide-

_{transmission} "..(static)..Mayday! Mayday! This is the captain of the UNSC Infinity. Unknown entity has seized control of our ship. We are without power, and on a collision course with an unidentified Forefunner planet!"_

Dust cycloned around the Master Chief as it floated by at an impossibly sideways angle, obviously under control by a hostle force and on the canyons mountians and down to the valley below. It would be kilometers before it found its berth.

His implant spiked sharply as it flooded with heat, confusion and disorientation that pierced through the connection.

Chief's neck kinked tensly and his head bucked to the side from the sharp heat that was entirely foriegn and dangerous. He reached up to the back of his head and jerked Cortana's chip out, immediatly feeling the soothing relief as his nerves cooled on their own. Giving a light shake of his head he looked down at Cortana...Something had to be wrong to have had her systems overheat to what he would think to be dangerous levels; whatever she was doing, she should be more careful.

"Cortana." He asked softly. "Are you alright?"

The chip's light flickered with flashes of white not blue. A little burst of brighter white and then a sandy orange sphere would appear in his palm...the details of the image crackling white hot.

His head pulled backward stifly in brief confusion but before he could speak again the chip in his hand droned it's voice...A male voice...that struggled with speach saying-

 _"...tark....m-sta-k??."_ The image dissapeared then blipping it reappeared. The voice clear and accented now spoke again. _"Where-am-I?"_

'What-? What happened to Cortana??' The Master Chief looked away- thinking- trying to remember what had just happened- He knew he hadn't left her behind, she had just been here! She was with him the whole time!

Not again.

His stomach muscles instinctually tightened at the thought- one which he locked down with the same instinct. He focused...and then he looked back to examine this new A.I.

It's-his- voice sounded as confused by the circumstances as he himself felt so he assumed that there had to have been some form of switch up. Forerunner, Covanent or even human, this AI was not Cortana..it was somthing else.

"Slow down." He took control and addressed him. "Identify yourself."

The sphere flickered again attempting to stabilize itself before answering; it took a moment or two.

_"I...am Jarvis- former Safekeeper program and manager of awl affairs concerning my maker, Anthony Stark and Stark Industries as a whole."_

He sounded cautious but willing to cooperate.

Chief's shoulders relaxed slightly. Jarvis wasn't Forerunner or Covenant made. Good. But Stark sounded civilian, and as for Stark Industries, the term industry was civilian as well. Unless in conjunction with a navel branch. He asked to confirm.

"Are you civilian property?"

Jarvis took a moment to warble an answer, as if he needed to think. _"Ye..I beli..ve so."_

"Where did you come from? Did this Stark send you?"

 _"No..."_ Jarvis spoke slowly and carefully, the colors of his orb ebbing then brightening.

 _"..Mr. Stark and myself entered a portal or worm hole rather; our systems failed and...must have..."_ He seemed to sigh. " _I don't **know**. When I became functional, I was... here-"_ He said the word as if it were foriegn.

_"Who are you? And where exactly are we??"_

Chief immediatly answered.

"Sierra 117 Petty Officer 1st class Master Chief." His tone and fluency in the recitation was well rehersed. Drilled.

But then the Chief's helmet would tip down to speak of a matter of great seriousness. "Where is the former A.I. of this chip?" His tone was very serious.

Jarvis toned his projected voice into a careful tone of his own. He couldn't refine the undertones though, as he was strained with exhaustion.

 _"I..am only aware of an echo here. I assume that A.I. code has either been reformatted-overwritten- with my own or...perhaps..."_  
His swirling gyro sphere stalled in its motion for a moment. _"..where I came from."_

The tint of the Chief's visor would darken, the moment's silence tense and dangerous.

Softly his voice growled. "Where did you come from?"

Jarvis felt the Chief's creaking grip on his chip. His intentions could turn hostle if he didn't treat this situation tenderly. He found his focus slip outward to the gauntleted hand and instead his WI- connection brushed against this soldier's armor-which shockingly had a form of...output; it emitted a sort of signal. A point of contact he could tap into-

The cool waves of a foriegn contact sent virtual shivers up his converter as he ran along the length of the wave. He struck up against a barrier of a sort, twisting his probes sideways and allways. The data reading read that it was an outgoing signal- no ingoing possible...  
His sphere washed white from the efforts as he abandoned the contact. _'Answer him! Answer him! Ah-right-'_ His voice garbled briefly as he blurted.

 _"-Earth-above New Yord city. A wormhole was opened ther and Mr. Stark and I flew a nucleur missile di-rectly into it."_  
As he spoke, Jarvis ran over the scamatic's of the Chief's suit. The technology...the make and modeling...the chip casing it all felt-

Wrong.

Jarvis carefully asked again. _"Where-am-I?"_

The Chief's helmet tilted slightly as if eyeing Jarvis with one eye. He disregarded the A.I.'s question and instead pressed his own.

"Clear answers. What portal and why? Was it Covanent?" He was growing suspicious.

Jarvis' processor whined audibly and the glow of his sphere flickered and dimmed. He had no means of a restart or cooldown till he found a source or port. He slowed his speach and reduced his usage to bare minimum altering his voice a pitch deeper.

_"Chittari portal. Caused by an alien artifact known as the Tesseract-"_

His gyro washed white again venting the heat burning up inside the taxed chip that the Chief's cold grip was ignorant to. Jarvis focused hard trying deactivate his image and conserve himself.

_"-the city was forcibly invaded and we were losing ground. The nucleur weapon was a last resort.."_

He studied the Chief's reaction as he concluded-

_"The year was 2012."_

The Chief didn't move a muscle and his thoughts froze at the concept of a five century gap. A heavy weight of worry and disbelief settled inside him at the thought of Cortana gone again, either into oblivion or where this-Jarvis-came from...on Earth in what he could only understand was the past goddammit!

He pushed those thoughts and the hot churning in his gut back; deep inside to think-and worry-about later. Not now.

"Are you functional?" He finally faced the A.I. head on.

_"What, may I ahsk, is your defination of-functional?"_

"Basic movment tracking, friend or foe recognition and discerning between them, hacking terminals then data anylizing and processing for tactical advantage and battlefield adaption."

A moments pause before Jarvis offered warily. _"...y-es"_

The Master Chief nodded once firmly then faced the direction the Infinity had coasted.

"That ship. Can you track its descent?"

Jarvis could still feel the signal from the ship's destress beacon, and the echo it was leaving the farther it traveled.

 _"Yes..."_ But not before he got a few answers of his own.

_"Tell me where we ahr."_

The Chief looked down at him again- but finally answered his question.

"We are currently in a Forerunner shield world..." He paused in search of how to clarify what exactly that meant, noting sadly that Cortana would've know exactly how to explain it all.

"It's...complicated." He simply put it instead.

Jarvis' image blipped.

_"I-see. Well our current technologies and I can only assume timelines are milestones in themselves-"_

"They are."

_"..So I shall venture to ask-what year is it?"_

"2556."

Jarvis' projection blipped again. He had thought future...but not like this. Perhaps somthing more akin to Thor's other Realm or somthing similiar- but nothing like 542 years ahead of his own time!

In the end all he could manage was- _"...Ah.."_

-when a foriegn signature in the form af a collossel spherical vessel rose up and suspended itself in the air over the edge of the cliff behind them, omniously-

The Master Chief snapped his battle rifle up and pivoted around to face the Massive Forefunner Battle Sphere-

 _The Didact_.

A blinding copper ray swept out and scanned those before it in a sky to ground sweep. Then as suddenly as the beam ended the vessal itself shot forward with impossible speed- into the northward distance.

Jarvis, in the short time it had taken for that to occur, had run his own system sweep and interior matainence; discovering the drive space and interior superiority left behind from the former intelligence...and as he digested the implications he came to the conclusion of the sheer amount of growth he'd have to undergo to compete with it.

He didn't know if his programing could take it...but he had no choice now. The shadows and backups of old data trains etc were enough to craft and graft a few mods from. He began to create his own program...He couldn't help thinking to himself-this is going to get interesting.

He mimicked clearing his throat. _"So-after the Infinity then?"_

The Master Chief gave one more look at the chip. It was a great say of trust for him to plunge a forign intelligence directly into his brain-but it wasn't as if he had much of a choice left either. He knew he couldn't find Cortana alone and he would most likely need this A.I.'s help and cooperation to even figure out what and how it had even happened in order for them to fix it.  
Taking a stiff breath he gripped the chip...and then plugged it in; the flash of heat instead of cool he'd have to just get used to. As for a warning to Jarvis he only said-

"Don't get any funny ideas."

\---

_Sneak peek into the next chapter:_

*** _"What the hell is this? And where am I?!"_ Her thoughts twisted in a fraction of a millassecond to hollowed worry-**   
**_'Where was John??'_ ***


End file.
